Tag: libel laws

This guy is lucky he only got fined because there were conservative journalists thrown in jail after their libel suits:

Rhyu Si-min, a former health minister and an influential liberal commentator, was sentenced to a fine of 5 million won (US$4,000) by a court Thursday for defamatory comments made years ago about Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon.

The Seoul Western District Court handed out the monetary penalty after convicting Rhyu of defaming Han by making false remarks about him in public between 2019 and 2020 when the minister was serving as a senior prosecutor.

Rhyu, who formerly headed a foundation memorializing late former President Roh Moo-hyun, was indicted in May last year for alleging on his YouTube channel in December 2019 and in a media interview in July 2020 that a prosecution department led by Han at that time illegally accessed his personal bank account and that of the memorial foundation sometime between late November and early December 2019.

Han, picked last month by President Yoon Suk-yeol as his administration’s first justice minister, was serving as head of the Supreme Prosecutors Office’s Anti-Corruption & Organized Crimes Department when Rhyu alleged the illegal account accesses occurred.

“(Han) appears to have suffered considerable psychological pain from the defendant’s remarks, as he was recognized as a prosecutor who abused his investigative power for an unjust purpose,” the Seoul court said, noting Rhyu may have considerable influence in the formation of public opinion, particularly as a YouTuber with more than 1 million subscribers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Another Korean journalist is heading to jail and yet the international media doesn’t seem to even care:

Another journalist, Woo Jong-chang (우종창, 63), is jailed in South Korea after being convicted of the “crime” of “libel” for announcing “false information.”  On July 17, 2020, Judge Ma Seong-yeong (마성영) (with judges Kim Young-hwan 김영환 and Yoon Jeong-un 윤정운 on the team) of the Seoul Northern District Criminal Court sentenced journalist Woo Jong-chang to eight months in jail for libel and “Violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communication Network Utilization and Information Protection” and imprisoned him.  When the sentence was announced, a woman sitting in the court yelled out, “Is this a dictatorship? How can this happen?”

Judge Ma Seong-yeong stated, “As a journalist, he did not even go through the process of confirming the minimum facts and forced false information through broadcasting.” 

East Asia Research Center

I highly recommend that everyone read the whole article from Dr. Tara O at the link. If what Woo reported on his Youtube channel from a tip he received is true it would be very problematic for the Blue House.

However, could you imagine what would happen to the U.S. news media if every tip they reported on led to them being prosecuted for libel and put in jail?

This is another example of how Korea’s libel laws are used to attack people for political reasons. In this example they were used by the Moon administration to attack a liberal political rival for the Presidency:

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung will be able to retain his position after the Supreme Court sent his case back to an appeals court, Thursday, which had previously found him guilty of violating the Election Law.

The ruling also cleared the way for Lee to pursue a presidential bid on the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s (DPK) ticket in 2022.

In a 7-to-5 vote, the court ruled that he had not violated the Election Law. 

“The law can’t punish Lee Jae-myung for disseminating false information (at the debate) unless he actively declared the false claim was a fact. Some of Lee statements in the debate were simply made to deny claims made by his opponent and this cannot be seen as a deliberate act to disseminate false information…,” Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su ― who wrote for the majority ― said during the session which was televised on TV and livestreamed on YouTube. (………..)

The governor was indicted last December for having his older brother forcibly committed to a psychiatric care facility in 2012. The prosecution also claimed he violated the Election Law by lying about the brother in a nationally televised debate with other election candidates in 2018. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the libel laws were also used to go after his wife as well for posting supposed false information on Twitter. She was previously cleared of the allegations as well. Could you imagine if in the U.S. politicians and their supporters could be charged for libel for giving false information on Twitter and during debates? We would have no politicians left.

Anyway this is just an example of how clever and ruthless the Moon administration was to win the Presidency. ROK Heads may also remember that they got Ban Ki-moon to drop out of the race by using what he called deliberate “fake news” against him. With Ban and Lee out of the race Moon then had a clear path to the Presidency after former President Park’s impeachment.

As we have seen repeatedly the Moon administration is willing to go great lengths to protect their friends and punish their enemies.  Now they are targeting a corruption whistleblower and letting the media know they will go after them as well if they continue to report his claims:

A former investigator with the Blue House special inspection bureau accused President Moon Jae-in’s top aides of covering up bribery allegations against Korean Ambassador to Russia Woo Yoon-keun and said he was kicked out of the prestigious Blue House team for looking into the case.

Kim Tae-wu, an investigator with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office who was temporarily dispatched to the Blue House last year to work for the special inspection bureau, told local media on Saturday that he was victimized for targeting Woo, a high-profile figure in Korean liberal politics who formerly served as a lawmaker in the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and has close ties with Moon. In an email to several media outlets, Kim said he wanted to shed light on the truth and recover his tarnished reputation.

Both the Blue House and Woo adamantly denied Kim’s claims that the envoy was bribed. In scathing remarks, Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s senior secretary for public affairs, referred to Kim as a “loach” in a written statement issued to Blue House correspondents on Saturday, saying the investigator was “completely muddying stream water” now that he’s been cornered.

Yoon added that the truth will soon be revealed and the Blue House will “certainly” press legal charges against Kim for the spread of false information and defamation. Yoon went on to express “deep regret” for the local media outlets who were writing stories based on “unilateral claims” from Kim. Kim was one of 20 to 30 members of the so-called special inspection bureau under the office of Cho Kuk, presidential senior secretary for civil affairs.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the last paragraph is another example of how the Moon administration uses the nation’s libel laws to silence and imprison critics.  

Below is a video of Korean journalist Byun Hee-jae being perp walked to court for a libel arrest where he releases a statement about his unfair arrest.  ROK Heads may remember that Byun is the Korean journalist who has been disputing the origin of the tablet PC that led to the eventual impeachment of former President Park Gun-hye:

What I found ironic about the video was that the JTBC President of news, Son Suk-hee went after Byun for libel because of protests against him.

The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office requested the warrant as JTBC anchor Sohn Suk-hee and the reporters as well as their families felt threatened.

Byun and his readers held rallies in front of Sohn’s residence and the church Sohn’s wife attended. Byun also warned that Sohn “could be murdered by the forces trying to conceal the truth if he doesn’t reveal the truth himself.” Byun denied the libel charges, claiming he was raising reasonable suspicions.  [Korea Herald]

First of all let me state that I do not support anyone protesting in front of someone’s home or church.  With that said the Korean left used protests against board members of KBS and MBC news to get them to resign.  Labor union members followed the board members and their families to universities, workplaces, churches and other locations they went and harassed them.  The harassment became too much and the board members resigned thus allowing the Moon Jae-in administration to appoint left wing board members to seize control of MBC and KBS.

The consolidation of these networks under left wing control eliminated negative coverage of President Moon from two of the biggest media outlets in Korea.  The arrest of Byun Hee-jae can arguably be described as yet another attempt to suppress negative media coverage of the Moon administration.  By throwing him in jail it will send a message to journalists working at the two major conservative newspapers the Chosun Ilbo and Joong Ang Ilbo to not publish negative stories about the Moon administration or its allies or face being arrested.

"Democracy dies in darkness"https://t.co/9qHjbtRTag
This time, it's Im Jong-seok, President Moon's Chief of Staff with the well-documented history of pro-North Korean activism, suing a conservative journalist & commentator for calling him "jusapa," a North Korean sympathizer.

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 31, 2018

ROK Drop favorite Dr. Tara O has another great guest posting up over at One Free Korea that I recommend everyone read.  This time she discusses how the Moon administration has pre-emptively jailed journalist Byun Hee-jae for libel.  Byun has been writing about the infamous tablet PC that ultimately led to the impeachment of former President Park.  In the article Dr. O provides further information about how dubious the tablet PC was:

Park was impeached, and Moon was elected. Unlike what has been written in English, Park was not impeached for corruption or bribery, but for charges that she gave away the “monopoly of state affairs,” and the tablet PC was seen as the “silver bullet.”

The tablet PC turned out to contain no evidence per the special prosecutors’ own forensic report and was not even Choi’s. The tablet PC also did not contain Korean document editing-capable software. The report, however, was not released to the public until a year later, long after the impeachment had concluded and the public fervor had died down.

Sohn stated afterwards that “even if there was no such thing as the [insignificant] tablet PC . . . , [it wouldn’t have mattered]” implying that Park would have been impeached anyway, although it was his TV program that incited people. JTBC, popular among the youth, has made other erroneous claims and sensationalized reporting on the Sewol Ferry sinking, Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).  [One Free Korea]

I recommend reading the whole article at the link, but a commenter left a link to another article that shows how Byun’s independent journalism site, Media Watch was likely targeted by the Moon administration for libel because of its dogged pursuit of the tablet PC story:

According to Mediawatch.kr, NFS’s forensic report does NOT even mention the name of Choi Soon-sil, much less pinpoint Choi as the user of the tablet PC that JTBC reported was owned and used by Choi.

Na’s testimony should have prompted an avalanche of reports covering this bombshell of a testimony—at least as torrential as those that gushed out of JTBC when it reported that NFS’s forensic report proved JTBC’s claim that Choi was the user of the tablet PC.

Instead, what happened was (1) a deafening silence on the part of JTBC and other MSM outlets, none of which reported this stunning revelation, and (2) the jailing of Byun Hee-jae, the founder of Mediawatch.kr, the only news outlet that has provided an extensive coverage of the testimony.

Mediawatch has doggedly pursued the JTBC’s disingenuous and illegal activities involving the tablet PC. Na’s crucial testimony was covered only by Mediawatch.kr and Jayoo.co.kr, a small internet news outlet which briefly mentioned Na’s testimony in its coverage of the arrest warrant for Byun Hee-jae, and a Youtube channel run by an investigative reporter U Jongchang formerly of Chosun ilbo, who also attended the court proceedings along with Yi Huiu of Mediawatch and Kim Piljun of JTBC.  [Tepyung.com]

Once again I recommend reading the whole thing at the link.

Remember that the actions being taken to silence journalists reporting about the dubious tablet PC is being done in concert with the arrest of Druking, the blogger who helped the Moon administration to manipulate online opinion before the election.  So he has been effectively silenced as well about disclosing any other actions that may have occurred prior to the election to help President Moon get elected.

Once again I wonder if we will ever see the major US media report on any of this?  Probably not they are too busy reporting on more important topics like Roseanne and Samantha Bee.

Another example of how the defamation laws in South Korea are used to silence political opposition:

A conservative commentator has been arrested on libel charges regarding his claim that media reports that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye were manipulated.

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Byun Hee-jae, citing a risk of the suspect destroying evidence.

Byun is accused of spreading false information through his book “The Curse of Sohn Suk-hee” and his online articles, arguing that local cable channel JTBC manipulated the content of a tablet PC and made it look like it was used by Choi Soon-sil, a long-time confidante of the former president.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office filed for the warrant last Friday, accusing Byun of slandering JTBC, its president Sohn Suk-hee and its reporters without reasonable grounds.

The tablet PC was used as critical evidence proving that Choi had interfered in state affairs, leading to Park’s impeachment last year.  [KBS World News]

For those that don’t remember the tablet was mysteriously found in an office once rented by Park Geun-hye’s friend Choi Soon-shil who was at the center of the scandal.  The finding of the tablet PC was the key news that created the momentum to impeach former President Park Geun-hye.

JTBC only admitted where it found the tablet after changing its story multiple times about the origin of the tablet.  If it was in fact found in the old office I always found it interesting how it was conveniently left with such sensitive information on it and no password protection.  Additionally the Korean courts did not consider the tablet as evidence during the trial against President Park because it was tampered with.